poll

Morning Poll: Which are you more worried about?

By ARLnow.com
People in line for Covid testing in Courthouse, where the line wrapped around the block (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

On Tuesday Arlington’s seven-day moving average of Covid cases set another record.

Just shy of 200 people are testing positive for the virus in Arlington each day, on average, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. Lines for local Covid testing sites stretch around multiple blocks. And yet, people are (mostly) still traveling for the holidays, dining at restaurants and generally living their lives.

Also, while local cases are skyrocketing — amid the Omicron variant wave that’s sweeping across the country — Covid-related hospitalizations remain at modest levels: just over one per day, on average, in Arlington. Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator, but the lack of a big spike is an encouraging sign that the vaccines are working and, perhaps, Omicron is not as deadly as past variants.

Meanwhile, there’s another worry on the minds of people this holiday season: inflation. Rising prices in the grocery store, at the gas pump and even the pizzeria elsewhere have put a squeeze on many people’s finances.

“U.S. inflation is at its highest rate in nearly four decades this fall, reaching 6.8% in November from a year ago,” the Wall Street Journal recently reported. “Consumers are seeing prices rise sharply for a variety of goods and services because of persistent supply and labor shortages and strong demand.”

Some of the price increases are being partially offset by rising wages, but there are still worries that inflation could continue and, together with rising real estate prices, make it tough for some households to make ends meet.

Given all of that, we’re wondering this morning — while acknowledging the incredible human toll of the pandemic overall — whether Arlington residents are currently more worried about the rises in Covid or inflation.

Happy Thanksgiving, Arlington!

By ARLnow.com

It’s late on a Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving.

Perhaps you’re starting to get ready for a Wednesday night out at the bars with your fellow locals. Or mentally preparing for a long day of parades, football, cooking, eating and dishwashing with family.

Whatever you’re doing, ARLnow hopes you have a fun and safe Thanksgiving. Lest anyone forget, here are some turkey frying safety tips from ACFD:

Cooking safety aside, we were also wondering around Covid safety.

Though our planned morning poll on the topic got preempted by the unexpected Ballston development news, we’ll ask it now: given that vaccines are widely available, but the virus is still infecting people, how has the pandemic affected your Thanksgiving plans this year?

ARLnow will not be publishing tomorrow unless there’s major breaking news. We’ll have a lighter-than-normal publishing schedule for Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Morning Poll: To what degree is your life back to a pre-pandemic normal?

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 10 a.m.) We’re one year and nine months into the pandemic and it’s probably safe to say that most people just want things to be largely back to normal.

And, aside from wearing masks and working remotely, in many ways it is.

Most people are vaccinated. Covid-related hospitalizations, at least in Arlington, are relatively low. You can eat inside at restaurants, attend sporting events, go to school — basically do anything you used to be able to do, with only minor modifications.

There’s also good news on the return-to-normality front: a forthcoming Pfizer anti-viral drug holds the promise of further reducing severe illness and death from Covid, while an antibody cocktail appears effective in combating Covid among the immunocompromised, for whom vaccine effectiveness is limited.

Plus, there’s talk the the pandemic phase of the Covid era may be coming to an end soon.

On the other hand, it seems unlikely that we’ll return to pre-pandemic work habits, at least among those office dwellers. Two-thirds of white collar workers are still working remotely at least part time, and 91% of workers hope remote work is here to stay, according to a recent Gallup poll.

And for those with health conditions that make them vulnerable to Covid — or who have members of their household with such conditions — the threat is still here. In Arlington, the seven-day moving average of new cases has actually risen in each of the past four days, reaching 28 daily cases today after bottoming out around 20, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data.

Covid cases in Arlington as of 11/9/21 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

Given all of the above, if you had to arbitrarily assign a percentage to it, to what degree is your life back to a pre-pandemic normal?

Morning Poll: Is Arlington on the right track or the wrong track?

By ARLnow.com
The Rosslyn skyline, as seen from the Tidal Basin (Flickr pool photo by Erinn Shirley)

Despite the Republican sweep of statewide offices in Virginia, last week Arlington remained deep blue.

All of the Democratic or Democrat-endorsed candidates for local office and the state legislature won their races by comfortable margins. That includes County Board member Takis Karantonis, who was reelected with 60.1% of the vote.

Of Karantonis’ three independent opponents, Audrey Clement had the highest vote total: 18.4%.

Karantonis slightly underperformed his predecessor, the late Erik Gutshall, who in 2017 received 62.8% of the vote. But there was also one fewer challenger in Gutshall’s race.

By the November election results alone, it would seem that people in Arlington are quite pleased with the way things are going here. Despite some economic headwinds and concerns about crime, Arlington remains a relatively safe place with the one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state — and that’s well before Amazon’s HQ2 is fully built out.

But that doesn’t necessarily paint the full picture of how people in Arlington feel about the direction of the county. So today we’re asking: how do you feel about the way things are headed here?

Flickr pool photo by Erinn Shirley

Poll: Did this morning’s Metro mess affect your commute?

By ARLnow.com
7000 series Metro train (Photo courtesy Metro)

All of Metro’s 7000 series trains have been pulled from service, following last week’s derailment in Arlington, leading to major delays this morning.

Metro announced last night that its newest generation of railcars was being held out of service. Investigators appear to believe that the 7000 series has an issue with defective axles, which may have led to the derailment between the Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn stations.

This could be an extended problem for Metro, depending on what’s found upon further inspections of the railcars. The National Transportation Safety Board will be holding a media briefing today at 10 a.m. to discuss its investigation into the derailment.

In the meantime, Metro said that trains will run about every half-hour while the 7000 series is out of service. Via social media, passengers are reporting full trains this morning and even longer delays.

We’re wondering how today’s issues are affecting your commute. Did you stick with Metro, make other plans, or were you not riding Metro in the first place?

Morning Poll: Are You Stepping Up Your Clothing Purchases?

By ARLnow.com

There wasn’t much of a need to update one’s wardrobe for the first year of the pandemic, with many folks stuck inside and Zoom calls serving as the primary exposure to the outside world.

With people returning to the office, however, and with travel and events ramping back up, that’s starting to change.

After showing promising signs amid the spring vaccination ramp-up, this summer apparel sales in the U.S. started to take off — and that trend is continuing. From a Reuters report last night on the latest earnings at jeansmaker Levi Strauss:

Levi Strauss & Co (LEVI.N) on Wednesday beat third-quarter revenue and profit estimates, boosted by an uptick in demand for jeans from people refreshing their wardrobes as they returned to normal social life following easing pandemic restrictions.

Shares of the jeans maker rose 2% in extended trading after the Dockers brand owner said its board had approved a $200 million share repurchase plan. The company has a market capitalization of $49.49 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

With schools and offices reopening and people even going on vacations, as cases of coronavirus infections trend down, many are splurging on new apparel.

Today we’re wondering how this apparent trend is playing out in Arlington.

Do you find yourself spending more on clothes as the seasons change, offices reopen, and the delta wave recedes? Are you planning to refresh your wardrobe this fall and winter, as the article suggests? Or are you delaying additional clothes purchases until an even wider reopening and return to normal?

Morning Poll: Were You More Productive During the Facebook and Instagram Outage?

By ARLnow.com

For hours yesterday, Facebook-owned services, including the Instagram, WhatsApp, and original blue Facebook app, were knocked off the internet.

It was a throwback to the growing pains of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking services more than 10 years ago, when major technical snafus like this were more common.

The timing was also conspicuous, given that the outage came one day after a bombshell 60 Minutes episode in which a former employee levied a number of accusations, including that the company incentivizes “angry, polarizing, divisive content” in order to boost user engagement.

Here at ARLnow HQ, the primary effect of the outage was to disrupt our ability to post stories to our Facebook page and photos to our Instagram account. Also our readership dipped a bit, though not as much as one might imagine given how much traffic Facebook drives.

Elsewhere, though, one would think the widespread use of Facebook and Instagram as a time-filling utility — a quick break from work, a boredom reliever, etc. — actually resulted in some people being more productive during the workday while it was down. Does that include you?

Photo by Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash

Poll: Fall Is Here… Which Seasonal Change Do You Dread the Most?

By ARLnow.com

Yes, fall is here and Mr. Autumn Man is again walking down the street with a cup of coffee, wearing his signature sweater over a plaid collared shirt.

Last month we found that after an especially warm and stormy summer more than two-thirds of poll respondents were “suffering summer fatigue” and ready for the start of fall. A few years ago we also established the kinds of autumnal things that readers most look forward to: the leaves changing color, fall festivals, playoff baseball and going to pumpkin patches and orchards.

Today, however, we’re asking about the things you’re not looking forward to as the season changes.

For one, it’s getting darker by the day.

Then there’s the colder weather, which will soon enough necessitate jackets, gloves and hats. And that’s not to mention leaf blower noise and leaf raking duties for those with yards.

Of those three things, which are you least looking forward to?

Morning Poll: Second Rosslyn Station and New Georgetown Stop?

By Jo DeVoe

Transit planners have come up with four different ways that they say could solve congestion at the Rosslyn Metro Station while planning for future ridership needs.

Unfortunately, a Metrorail line through Columbia Pike — supported by nearly 70% of ARLnow poll respondents — did not make the cut. But each of the potential future projects does start with changes that some Arlingtonians could see as benefits: a second Metro station in Rosslyn and a first-ever Georgetown stop.

After linking Rosslyn to Georgetown, all four expanded lines would run parallel to and to the north of existing east-west trains, connecting Arlington to West End, the southern halves of Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, and stopping at Union Station. From there, they veer north toward Greenbelt and New Carrollton, Maryland or south to National Harbor.

Two options stand out from the pack. First, a Silver Line express tunnel in Virginia starting at West Falls Church station, and stopping at a possible second Ballston station en route to a second Rosslyn station. Another intriguing possibility is a Blue Line loop to National Harbor, which would add some new direct transit connectivity to Arlington’s Crystal City-Pentagon City corridor.

WMATA says these two would have the second-greatest and greatest gains in new ridership and annual fare revenue, respectively.

While these changes could improve commutes, the projects are decades down the road, if they happen at all. Each of the two options above could take up to 25 years to fund (needing $20-25 billion), construct and complete.

Suspending for a moment how far away these new Metro projects could be, what do you think of WMATA’s proposed changes to connectivity in Arlington and just over the river?

Morning Poll: Nice Weather Is Here, How Happy Are You About It?

By ARLnow.com

In our area it seems like every September there’s a stretch of perfect late-summer or early-fall weather, with sunny skies and comfortable temperatures.

And it appears we have just entered such a stretch.

The ten-day forecast currently includes no rain, and a range of high temperatures between 75-84 degrees. Granted, such stretches are often too fleeting, but — it sure is nice while it lasts.

Today’s kickoff of the D.C. area’s Nice September Stretch follows an extended period of awful weather. Deluges of rain, storms that knock out power, and borderline unbearable combinations of heat and humidity in between. It felt like it was never going to end.

With our weather dreams coming true, albeit temporarily, we were wondering just how excited locals were about it. Beyond extended stretches of nice weather being a bit… well, boring… there’s also a thought given to the need to water plants, wash the car, etc. if it stays dry for too long.

And, just how much do locals care about the weather after all? If we really prioritized warm temperatures and sunny skies to go along with the expensive real estate, wouldn’t more of us be packing up and moving to Southern California?

Given the national picture — destruction caused by Hurricane Ida and deadly floods and devastating wildfires — we should be counting our weather blessings. This is not to minimize the suffering of those recently affected by severe weather, which top scientists say is being made worse by climate change.

But sticking to our local reality here in Arlington, this morning we’re wondering just how jazzed everyone is for our run of September weather perfection.

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